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Public Health, the Hot New Major

By Alan KotokSeptember 19, 2008

Today’s front page of the Washington Post
(free registration required) notes the increasing popularity of public
health courses, all involving science in one way or another, among undergraduates. The story cites a recent survey by
the Association of American Colleges and Universities that showed that 16
percent of the group’s 837 member institutions now offer majors or
minors in public health. And among those schools, two-thirds of their
programs require fieldwork or research.

For example, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, which has an entire School of Public Health,
has 311 undergrad majors compared to 159 studying the field in 1976.
The College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia, offers a
freshman seminar in emerging diseases. The instructor says the two
sections of the course fill up instantly.

Undergrad programs often include courses in epidemiology, immunology, and statistics. Thomas Coates, head of the global health program at the University of California at Los Angeles,
attributes the recent popularity of the courses to the high profile of
global diseases like AIDS and SARS. The story cites other unnamed
faculty who say that the ability of the Internet to connect American
students to people in other cultures, and the desire by many students
to work or study abroad have also fueled the trend.

Science Careers covered opportunities for scientists in public health in March 2008 and earlier in 2004.

One comment on “Public Health, the Hot New Major”

It is a very good sign that students are interested to take health courses,so that people are aware of different diseases.The students are going abroad,it will help them,major health courses required fieldwork or research,so they can be aware of different health problems of people
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